i-GOV Session - BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Internet Governance Forum’s mandate is defined in paragraphs 72.a through 72.l of the Tunis Agenda. It was conceived in 2005, during the Second Phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), as an open and inclusive process to discuss governance issues related to the Internet.

Delegates of the WSIS asked the United Nations Secretary-General to create the IGF in a multilateral, multistakeholder, democratic and transparent fashion and recommended to evaluate the IGF mandate within five years time.

In May 2006, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan established an Advisory Group to assist him in convening the first IGF in Athens, Greece. The Multistakeholder Advisory Group included 47 members from Government, the private sector and civil society, including the academic and technical communities, who represented all regions of the world. Since then, the MAG has met regularly, has held open consultations and has overseen the organization of the IGF.

For five years the IGF was convened annually indifferent regions (Athens, Rio de Janeiro, Hyderabad, Sharm El Sheikh and Vilnius). The Forum has been organized according to its original mandate: it has had no oversight function and has acted as a neutral, non-duplicative and non-binding process (paragraph 77). It has been supported by voluntary funding of interested stakeholders and coordinated by a cost-effective independent and neutral Secretariat(78).

In 2010, the UN General Assembly, in its resolution 65/141, decided to extend the mandate of the IGF for a further five years,recognizing the need to implement some improvements “with the view of linking it to the broader dialogue on global Internet governance”.

For the purpose of discussing improvements to the IGF, the UN Economic and Social Council, in its Resolution 2010/2, invited the Chair of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) to establish a working group to make recommendations about “enhancing the participation of developing countries, exploring further voluntary options for financing the Forum and improving the modalities of the preparation process and the work and functioning of the secretariat of the Forum.”

In 2011, the CSTD Working Group on Improvements to the IGF made a Report to the General Assembly and asked for an extension of its task, as there was significant divergence of views among group members on concrete proposals for improving the IGF, making it impossible to finalize a set of recommendations. In response, the UN General Assembly approved resolution 66/437 and extended the mandate of the Working Group.

The first IGF under the extended mandate was held in Nairobi in 2011, and many of the diverse positions on improvements were articulated there. On one hand, there are those stakeholders that propose to work on improvements, within the same original IGF mandate in paragraph 72 of the Tunis Agenda. This means, for example, more funding for the participation of governments and the youth, particularly from developing countries; further encouragement of national and regional IGF initiatives; improvement of the structure and reporting of the IGF outcomes; enhancements to working methodology and preparatory processes;a refinement of the role of the MAG; support for remote participation and cooperation with other organizations. On the other hand, there are contrasting views that propose a revision of the IGF’s mandate for the IGF to be more outcome-oriented; to have the capacity to make policy recommendations; have an expanded Secretariat located within the UN system; and even the creation of a global Internet policy decision-making body.